Biondelli

Family origins in Piacenza

The Biondelli family originated in Piacenza and belonged to the city aristocracy during the Duchy of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla. Its members participated in the silk trade, owned substantial estates around Piacenza and in the neighbouring Duchy of Milan, and served as treasurers of the Piacenza community for three successive generations between 1737 and 1804.

Giuseppe Biondelli and the move toward Franciacorta

Giuseppe Biondelli was born in Pesaro in 1890, after one branch of the family had moved there following Italian unification. His diplomatic career included service in Shanghai and Hong Kong as a young diplomat, followed by appointments as Consul General in the Principality of Monaco, Liverpool, Berlin and London during the years preceding the Second World War.

Giuseppe's connection with Franciacorta developed through his marriage to Clementina Maggi di Gradella, whose family had longstanding ties to the area. Clementina's attachment to Franciacorta, Giuseppe's own appreciation of Bornato and the proximity of Clementina's cousin Count Aymo Maggi—one of the founders of the Mille Miglia motor race—contributed to his decision to establish the family in Bornato.

Acquisition of the Bornato estate

During the 1940s, in the aftermath of the Second World War, Giuseppe acquired the villa and rural estate formerly owned by the Counts Fè d'Ostiani. At the time he was serving as Italian Consul General in Innsbruck and would later become an ambassador. He chose the property as the family's summer residence and planted the estate's first vineyards.

The property, traditionally called Breda, was organised as separate pieces of land around a central farmhouse. The name is connected with the Latin proedium or Lombard braida, terms for this type of landed estate. Before Giuseppe's acquisition, it had belonged to Count Alessandro Fè d'Ostiani, an Italian senator and minister plenipotentiary in China, Japan, Brazil, Belgium and Greece. It subsequently passed to his daughter Paolina, who married the French diplomat Count Charles Jean Tristan de Montholon Sémonville, later ambassador to Switzerland.

Carlottavio Biondelli and the modern winery

Giuseppe's son Carlottavio Biondelli expanded the family's viticultural activity. Drawing on his longstanding involvement in agriculture, he enlarged the estate's vine-growing programme and converted the 16th-century farmhouse at the centre of the property into the winery.

The farmhouse was comprehensively restored and enlarged with a reinforced-concrete underground cellar. The resulting facility was designed to vinify varieties separately according to the character and suitability of their vineyard soils. Chardonnay was associated with the estate's traditional-method Franciacorta production, while red varieties included Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Nebbiolo and Barbera.

Carlottavio subsequently managed the wine business with his wife Mariella and their sons Francesco and Joska. The family continued to live and work at the estate, maintaining its dual identity as a home and a working agricultural property.

Organic certification and hospitality

The estate's vineyards and wines obtained organic certification in 2014. The certified approach removed synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilisers from vineyard management and required a substantial reduction in the sulphite content of the finished wines.

After a careful restoration of the 18th-century residence, the family opened its home to guests in spring 2018. The project preserved the historic architecture, original frescoes, period features, antiques and family heirlooms while adding modern amenities. Eleven individually designed suites were eventually created, overlooking either the park or the vineyards.

Cantine Biondelli today

Cantine Biondelli remains a family-owned working winery. Joska Biondelli is identified as its CEO and partner, while his wife Francesca designed and oversaw the restoration of the hospitality interiors. Salvatore tends the gardens and vineyards, and Marta manages winery operations, supervising the cellar and production from vine to bottle.

The estate now comprises 10 hectares of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vineyards and a historic 2-hectare park. Grapes are grown on the property, picked by hand and processed entirely at the winery. Vinification, tirage, ageing, riddling, disgorgement and final labelling all take place on the estate.

The principal estate lies at Bornato in Cazzago San Martino, in the heart of Franciacorta. Its 16th-century farmhouse faces Bornato's medieval castle and stands at the entrance to the Longarone Valley, between Bornato, Cazzago San Martino and Calino.

The vineyards occupy ancient morainic terrain created by retreating glaciers. The soils are described as mineral-rich and freely draining, encouraging roots to penetrate deeply and helping the vines maintain natural balance. Individual Chardonnay and Pinot Noir sites are characterised more specifically by thin morainic soils with a substantial stony skeleton. The Uberti red-wine vineyard at Provaglio d’Iseo has a more clay-rich soil, again with appreciable skeletal material.

The named sites generally face south. Published elevations range from 200 to 220 metres for some Chardonnay parcels and from 200 to 300 metres for La Nave and the Pinot Noir sites. Uberti lies between 200 and 250 metres.

Lake Iseo influences the growing environment through gentle daily breezes. These winds cool the vineyards during warm summer weather and promote a marked difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures. The combination supports gradual, even ripening and helps retain natural acidity. The broader Franciacorta morainic amphitheatre extends southward from Lake Iseo between the Mella River to the east, the Oglio River to the west and the slopes of Monte Orfano to the south.

The estate's grapes are grown under an organic regime certified since 2014. Synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilisers are excluded from vineyard management, an approach intended to reduce the release of potentially harmful substances into the environment and limit their presence in the finished wines.

Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are cultivated across 10 hectares of estate vineyards. Chardonnay is planted on ancient, freely draining morainic soils, while Pinot Noir occupies similarly mineral and well-drained ground. The sites are managed parcel by parcel to preserve their separate identities. Guyot is the stated pruning and training system, with published densities of 4,300 vines per hectare for the Chardonnay sites and 6,000 vines per hectare for the Pinot Noir group.

All grapes are harvested by hand and placed in small crates. Picking begins with Chardonnay, which reaches maturity before Pinot Noir. Each parcel is harvested separately only after reaching the desired balance of ripeness, acidity and freshness. Manual picking permits bunch selection and helps maintain fruit integrity. The crates travel directly to the press room without conveyor belts or unnecessary handling.

Estate-grown and estate-vinified

Every stage of Franciacorta production is performed at the Bornato estate using grapes from the family's own vineyards. The process includes hand harvesting, pressing, primary vinification, selection and assembly of base wines, tirage, bottle fermentation, extended lees ageing, riddling, disgorgement and final labelling.

Reception and pressing

Hand-picked bunches arrive in small crates. At the eastern end of La Nave, a modern unloading hatch permits the crates to be emptied directly into the press room below, using gravity rather than conveyor belts to move the fruit into the cellar.

A pneumatic press consists of a stainless-steel cylinder and an inflatable natural-rubber membrane. The membrane presses the grapes gently against the cylinder walls to extract the juice while protecting freshness and aromatic character. The press can be inclined during operation, helping separate coarse grape material naturally from the must and shortening processing time.

Primary vinification and base-wine preparation

The vinification area contains temperature-controlled, compartmentalised stainless-steel tanks. These allow lots and parcels to be managed separately. General cellar operations include flotation, filtration, cold stabilisation, selection, blending and the assembly of Franciacorta base wines.

The estate's technical descriptions specify gentle pressing followed by primary fermentation in stainless steel at a controlled 14–15°C. Bottling for secondary fermentation takes place in the spring following the harvest.

Traditional-method production

After tirage, secondary fermentation occurs in the bottle. The range is aged on its lees for periods extending from at least 24 months to 72 months, depending on the cuvée. Remuage is carried out with latest-generation automatic gyropallet equipment.

The underground ageing cellar is built in reinforced concrete and shields the bottles from light, temperature variation and external influences. Thousands of bottles mature in organised galvanised-steel baskets, a system designed to optimise space, monitor individual lots and facilitate movement through the cellar.

Disgorgement, bottling operations and final labelling are completed in-house. During disgorgement, the deposit formed during lees ageing is removed before each bottle receives its final presentation.